updated 05:03 pm EDT, Fri September 14, 2012

Apple intends on providing 60 percent of required power

Aerial photos of Apple's enormous solar array adjacent to its data center in Maiden, NC have surfaced. The field, nearly complete less than three months since groundbreaking, covers 100 acres and generates 20 megawatts of power, with California's Sun Power sun-tracking panels.

Apple's construction of the farm in North Carolina may soothe Greenpeace's complaints of Apple's use of a primarily coal-and -nuclear powered electric grid provided by Duke Energy. Supplementing the solar array is a 4.8 megawatt peak Bloom Energy fuel cell plant, which converts biogas into electricity. The fuel cell build is the largest non-utility installation of the technology in the US.

Apple's corporate headquarters in Cupertino uses more than 50 percent renewable energy, mostly supplied by onsite fuel cells. The data center under construction in Prineville, OR has enough access to local renewable energy sources to completely meet the needs of the facility. Apple's Newark, CA data center will have enough direct-access clean energy to meet the needs of the plant by February 2013. [viagigaom]